Environmental Policy Steering Group

Finally! I have recieved proposed dates for the first meeting of the university's Environmental and Water Management Steering Group. This group, made up of senior managers from across the universities operational departments (residences, information services, estates) and myself from the Guild of Students, is to guide the efficient and effective management of water and energy across the UWA estate.

Its first job will be to discuss and approve, in formal terms, an energy and water management policy for the university that sets targets for cuts and so forth. Policy is important, if unsexy - it is a statement of intent and principle and something that the university management can be held accountable to in the future, so long as it is meaningful and motivated by the best intentions.

This group was established over a year ago, as part of the Carbon Trust carbon management plan but has yet to meet, despite its terms of reference calling for the group to meet once every term. I wrote to Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr. John Harries in early March asking him when the group would meet and he told me that it would do so by the end of term. Disappointingly, the term ends today and the group still hasn't met - but it should do so soon now, by the end of April at the latest.

What is a really useful reference is a report by the Welsh Audit Office - a governmental body which monitors value-for-money public service spending - in March 2005 specifically on energy and water management in the Welsh higher education sector. It provides details on management practices across the sector and highlights best practice examples. Just three universities (ourselves, Cardiff and Trinity College Carmarthen) did not have an energy policy. Finally, and unacceptably, two years after that report, we might be seeing some tangible action here in Aberystwyth.